Later during the same broadcast, Hannity attempted an amazing about-face. He begrudgingly acknowledged that the Times report was confirmed by Fox News, saying, “Yeah, maybe Donald Trump wanted to fire the special counsel for conflict — does he not have the right to raise those questions?”

By Friday morning, Fox News was walking back its own reporting. An anonymously-sourced report on its website attempt to cast doubt on the story reported by the Times and others, noting that while “Trump did have conversations about firing Mueller,” those conversations “might not have amounted to an outright directive.” That report was also highlighted on Fox News programming. Notably, Trump representatives passed up numerous opportunities to deny that Trump ordered Mueller’s firing.

Meanwhile, Trump’s favorite show — Fox & Friends — barely covered the story about Trump trying to dismiss Mueller, and treated Trump’s unconvincing denial of it as gospel.

Fox News’ handling of the latest Mueller story is reminiscent of how they handled another damaging news cycle for Trump earlier this month. Although Fox News independently confirmed a story broken by the Washington Post about Trump calling African nations “shithole countries” during a White House meeting, the network spent the following day gradually walking back its own reporting.